TfL funding for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Streetspace initiatives

Caroline Pidgeon: Following feedback from the London Ambulance Service and other 999 services in relation to the impact on response times, will TfL be insisting on greater use of camera enforcement as opposed to physical closures in future Low Traffic Neighbourhood initiatives that it funds?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) has established a regular working group with the Emergency Services and borough representatives and has incorporated feedback into guidance back to the boroughs. TfL is already contributing to the funding of many more camera-enforced “filters” by the boroughs for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods as a direct result of Emergency Services feedback and has issued guidance on appropriate use of signing. TfL recognises that the likely end point for these temporary projects will be a mixture of physical and camera enforced closures as appropriate, following discussions locally with the emergency services.

TfL Consultancy Service

Shaun Bailey: How much money has TfL received from its consultancy services for each year since May 2016? Please provide a list of which companies/organisations/Governments TfL provided services to and how much was received from each?

The Mayor: Contractual commitments prevent Transport for London (TfL) from publishing income received from each client. TfL also recognises the need to protect the commercial information provided by partners and clients. On long-term projects the substantive income is often not received until project completion. TfL publishes annual income from consulting services: £0.2m of income was received in 2018-19, £0.5m of income was received in 2019-20, and the income for 2020-21 will be shared once the trading accounts are completed.
Since 2018, TfL’s international trading arm has provided consultancy services and licensed intellectual property to the World Bank, Keolis, Ramboll, National Transport Authority (Ireland), Jacobs, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Rebel Group, Sporveien (Oslo), Hong Kong Transport Department and East-West Rail. Negotiations are ongoing with a number of other organisations for additional long-term projects to deliver a sustainable, profitable income stream to TfL and wider value to London

Pedestrian safety improvements

Len Duvall: In light of Lewisham’s recent approval of a planning app that allocated s278 funds,
can you provide an update on TfL’s plans for pedestrian safety improvements at the junction of Blackheath Hill/Lewisham Road/Greenwich South Street?

The Mayor: The s278 contribution from the nearby Blackheath Business Park, approved by Lewisham Council in December 2020, allocates £50,000 to this project. However, while Transport for London (TfL) greatly welcomes this contribution, it covers only 10 per cent of the full cost of the scheme.
Following public consultation in 2018, which showed local support for junction improvements, TfL carried out further design work to develop the proposals. The project was regrettably paused in 2020 while staff were furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic. Designs are now being finalised for construction in 2021, subject to the outcome of TfL’s discussions with the Government on the funding support it needs following the impact of the pandemic on its finances.

TFL Job Titles

Susan Hall: For TFL, how many job roles have at least one of the words, equality, diversity or inclusion in the job title broken down by pay grade?

The Mayor: A total of six roles at Transport for London (TfL) contain one of the words, equality, diversity or inclusion in their title. The table below details these roles and applicable paygrade. All of these roles are part of the Diversity & Inclusion team. The number of employees currently undertaking the roles is also shown.
Role
Pay Grade
Number of employees currently in role
Director of Diversity, Inclusion &Talent
Director
1
Diversity & Inclusion Lead
4
1
Diversity & Inclusion Specialist
3
2
Principal Equality & Corporate Sustainably Advisor
3
1
Inclusive Design Advisor
3
1
Diversity, Inclusion & Talent Adviser
2
2

Tube noise in Golders Green

Andrew Dismore: What is the cause of the recent increase in tube noise in Golders Green, especially around Morland Close? What actions are TfL taking to reduce the noise?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) carried out a track inspection in this area last year and found that work was required to improve its condition, by removing ballast from under the track. This could help to reduce the disturbance experienced by local residents.
This work has not yet taken place as TfL is currently focusing on essential maintenance work to ensure a safe and reliable network as a result of current coronavirus restrictions. However, once the work has been scheduled, I have asked that TfL contacts your office with an update.
While residential noise monitoring is currently suspended as a result of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, TfL will carry out further measurements in this area upon the resumption of its residential noise monitoring programme.
TfL has not received any complaints from residents based in Morland Close for over a year. It is important that residents get in touch with the TfL Contact Centre if there are any issues, as this allows TfL to determine any noise ‘hotspots’. Key sites are reviewed on a monthly basis by senior responsible managers.

TfL Junk Food Advertising Ban Evaluation

Andrew Boff: In response to my question 2020/2662, you previously said that the "independent evaluation [of the junk food advertising ban] being conducted by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is due to be published by Spring 2021". Can you please give an update on when you expect the evaluation to be published?

The Mayor: The evaluation of the TfL junk food advertising ban being conducted by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is still due to be published by Spring 2021, (Mayor’s answer to 2020/2662) [Evaluation of the removal of ‘junk-food’ advertising in public transport networks on junk-food awareness and purchasing in London: natural experiment study (NIHR funded study WSB WS1 WP1)]

Transport Workers and Covid-19

Keith Prince: Following up your partial response to Question 2020/2533, please provide me with an updated list of all Transport Workers who have died from Covid-19 in 2020, showing figures by month. This list should include: 1) sex and, if known, ethnicity, 2) date of reported death 3) name of TfL Contractor or TfL Division for whom each victim worked 4) place of work (e.g. Train Station, Bus Depot, Taxi, PHV) and 5) TfL Executive responsible for the transport mode in which each victim worked (e.g. MD Buses, LUL, Taxi and Private Hire, etc).

The Mayor: Sadly, in 2020, a total of 55 colleagues from Transport for London (TfL) and its partner organisations passed away in service due to coronavirus related illness. This does not include any loss of life in 2021.
Every death in service is taken very seriously by TfL. It has put in place a range of additional support for families and colleagues where there has been a bereavement.
All those who passed away in service were male. TfL does not have visibility over individual death certificates and the dates of death and the dates when these were reported vary.TfL is unable to provide a line by line account of each death in service due to data protection and out of respect for the privacy of the families of the deceased. A summary of the information requested has been provided in the attached tables.
TfL is also unable to report on the number of Taxi or Private Hire Drivers who have died in service as they do not have access to this information.

Staff time spent on TfL funding agreements with the Government

Caroline Russell: How many hours of Transport for London (TfL) employee time has been spent on negotiating funding deals with the Government since March 2020, and what has been the cost to TfL?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) has been through two rounds of negotiations with Government to secure funding in order to continue its operations in 2020/21. This is in addition to separate discussions to agree a funding agreement for the completion of Crossrail.
The negotiations are led by the Commissioner and Chief Finance Officer and are supported by a number of teams including Finance/Corporate Finance, Strategy, Legal and Divisional Operating teams. In addition to formal negotiations, a vast amount of work has been completed on complementary workstreams including – but not limited to - the production of the 2020/21 Emergency Budget, the Revised Budget and the GLA Budget; supporting the Government-commissioned KPMG review through the provision of information and bespoke briefings; and the production of the Financial Sustainability Plan as part of the H2 Government funding agreement.
It is therefore very difficult to quantify the amount of employee time and cost that TfL has had to expend on this. As a reference point, this Mayor’s Question from September 2020, MQ2020/2744, sets out the meetings held for the H1 and H2 negotiations which gives an indication of the time spent and number of officers involved on the formal negotiation meetings.

Letter from TfL Commissioner to Bus Operators re ’Special Leave for Vulnerable Bus Drivers'

Keith Prince: In a 14 October 2020 letter I received from your Deputy Mayor for Transport, I was informed that on or around 8 April the 'then Commissioner wrote to the bus operators to urge them to furlough staff who were both shielding and staff living with people who were shielding’ i.e., to implement the same policy the Commissioner had already enacted for TfL Staff. Please provide me with a copy of the Commissioner’s letter as well as confirmations from each Bus Operator that the Commissioner’s “urge” was accepted and implemented by them.

The Mayor: I’ve asked Transport for London (TfL) to provide you with copies of the letters the Commissioner sent to bus operators about furloughing. I understand verbal assurances were given to TfL during operator conference calls that this would happen as many rapid changes to the bus network were being discussed and introduced this way.

Tube Driver Advert

Shaun Bailey: When was the last time a tube diver job was advertised externally?

The Mayor: With reference to our previous response to Question No: 2020/4136, the last Train Operator vacancy advertised externally was advertised on 5 March 2018 and closed on 16 March 2018.

TfL co-operation with London Ambulance Service

Caroline Pidgeon: What steps is TfL taking to help ensure that all ambulances within the London Ambulance Service are routinely using sat navs that are accessing the most up to date information on the existence of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Streetspace schemes?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) has been working very closely with the emergency services to ensure they are able to access close to real time information on all changes that have taken place on the roads.
TfL has undertaken a large piece of work alongside the London Boroughs to capture Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Streetspace schemes on a system called One.Network. The One.Network system pushes data out to various satellite navigation providers (including Google, HERE, Waze, Apple, TomTom etc.) for use in their mapping. The London Ambulance Service and other emergency services use some of the aforementioned satnav devices and apps to navigate around London in order to have the most up to date information available when responding to calls and moving around the network.
TfL is also in discussion with the emergency services about any future plans for their onboard systems.

Funding Concessionary Fares

Shaun Bailey: You have stated that TfL must raise around £130 million in order to pay for concessionary fares. Please provide a breakdown of this.

The Mayor: There is a comprehensive range of travel concessions available for Londoners who use Transport for London (TfL) services. These are an important part of providing affordable travel, and while the Government wanted me to remove of some of these concessions, I am committed to retaining the under 18 concessions and 60+ Oyster which are a vital lifeline for some of our most vulnerable residents.
Estimating the cost of funding concessions is difficult – not least given the continued uncertainty around the long-term impact of COVID-19 on travel demand in London. TfL forecasts that the cost of these travel concessions for 2021-22 is between £110m and £130m.
For planning purposes, TfL has estimated the future annual revenue forgone as a result of the continuation of the 60+ Oyster Photocard is in the region of £80m; the continuation of the Zip Oyster Photocard for under 16s (to those not entitled to statutory free home to school transport) in the region of £14m - £22m; and the continuation of the 16+ Zip Oyster photocard between £16m - £28m.

TfL Bailout #3

Shaun Bailey: What is the latest with the next stage of bailout negotiations between TfL and the Government?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) submitted a Financial Sustainability Plan to the Department for Transport (DfT) on 11 January 2021, fulfilling the requirement of the October 2020 funding and financing agreement. A copy of the Plan is available online here. The Plan provides the starting point for discussions with Government ahead of the current funding and financing agreement expiring on 31 March 2021.

Covid (4)

Susan Hall: Has your office undertaken any research/polling on the number of people who intend to refuse a Covid vaccine in London, and if so, please can you share the data?

The Mayor: Since November 2020 the GLA, along with partners responsible for vaccine roll-out in London, has conducted tracking polling to understand levels of hesitancy towards taking a coronavirus vaccine.
As a matter of course the GLA publishes opinion polls on the London Datastore: https://data.london.gov.uk/gla-poll-results/.
Polls are published within three months, with the exception of polls commissioned to track a trend (which are published after the last survey in a series has been conducted in order to prevent surveys in the series that have still to be conducted being skewed by premature publication of some results); and polls commissioned to support work with a publication date outside of the three-month window (which are published when the publication is released).
The coronavirus vaccine polling the GLA is undertaking is part of a longer trend of research and will be published when the last survey in the series has completed.

Taxicard funding

Caroline Pidgeon: What is TfL’s commitment to funding the Taxicard for the year 2021/2022? Will TfL ensure that the reduced levels of ridership and funding during the Covid pandemic are not used as a basis for future funding levels?

The Mayor: The Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) remain committed to the key door to door services within London’s Assisted Transport offering – Dial-a-Ride and Taxicard – and will ensure that they continue to provide support for those who require additional help getting around. TfL is currently the sole funder of both these vital services, although the Taxicard service is managed by London Councils on behalf of the London boroughs.
TfL has already confirmed with London Councils that its commitment on Taxicard funding for the forthcoming financial year (2021 – 2022) will be based, as in previous years, on the forecasts for demand jointly agreed between London Councils and TfL.

Potential change of leases of platforms to London Overground

Caroline Pidgeon: I understand that the existing leases to London Underground on the London Overground/National Rail platforms at West Brompton, Highbury & Islington and Blackhorse Road expire in 2024. Please set out what plans there are to deliver control of these platforms to London Overground and to ensure passenger improvements are delivered at these important interchanges.

The Mayor: The Station Access Agreements between London Underground and London Overground (LO) which allow LO to operate at the stations referred to are due to expire on 13 May 2025. There are currently no plans to transfer ownership to LO. Transport for London (TfL) continually reviews the condition of its stations, including these three, and passenger improvements will be made as required, subject to TfL’s normal evaluation criteria.

TfL’s Lack of Data on Bus Workers hospitalised or on Long-Term Sick Leave as a result of Covid-19 Infections (2)

Keith Prince: Given your admission in responses to Question 2020/2535 and Question 2020/2536 that TfL had no data on both the number of Bus Workers hospitalised or on Long Term Sick Leave as a result of Covid-19 infections, how is it possible for TfL to plan a robust service, since doing so would certainly require TfL to possess timely data on the availability of its contractors’ Bus Drivers?

The Mayor: London has been successful at running its bus network at virtually 100 per cent of the planned service throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic, and I know Members will share my gratitude for the commitment and dedication displayed by bus workers to maintain these service levels in extremely challenging circumstances.
Staffing is well managed by bus operators, who employ workers and have good visibility of the availability of their employees for work as well as those isolating, off sick and being furloughed as extra protection from the risk of infection. Operators report this as staff lost mileage to Transport for London (TfL), which enables TfL to oversee reliable bus services across London.